How do I get my emergency credit on my smart meter?

Run out of credit on your smart meter and can’t top it up straight away? Activating your emergency credit will get you extra credit to keep your energy flowing.

If you’re on Smart PAYG Standard and your credit’s getting low, you’ll see a low balance on your meter or In-Home Display (IHD). A red light will also appear on your IHD.

If you’re on Smart PAYG+, the background colour on the app will change until it reaches black. If you’ve set up reminders, you’ll get a text or email to let you know your credit is low, and then when you’re about to go off supply.

Of course your first step should be to top up your credit – by visiting a PayPoint if you’re on Smart PAYG Standard, or through My OVO or one of our OVO apps if you’re on Smart PAYG+. However, if for some reason you simply can’t top up right away, you may need to access your emergency credit option.

With Smart PAYG+ this should happen automatically, but if you’re on Smart PAYG Standard you can activate your emergency credit either through your IHD or by using your smart meter keypad.

If you want to know how much emergency credit is available on your meter, just press 7 on your smart meter display.

Smart PAYG Standard: activating your emergency credit on your IHD

Your IHD will alert you when either your gas or electricity is getting low on credit.

Simply press the ‘E-Credit’ button to get your emergency credit.

Once you’ve started your emergency credit, the balance on your screen will count down to zero. That should give you time to get to a PayPoint before it runs out.

If you still don’t top up your meter, you’ll run out of credit and you’ll see this screen. That means your supply has been disconnected and you’ll need to top up to reconnect it.

Smart PAYG+: your ‘emergency credit period’

With Smart PAYG+, your top-ups go into a ‘central wallet’ and are used for both fuels together. If you’ve set up text or email reminders, your My OVO or app screen will alert you when your combined fuel credit is getting low. You’ll then get another alert telling you exactly when you’ll go off supply.

Rather than releasing £5 of credit, when you activate your emergency credit with Smart PAYG+ you get a 24-hour ‘non-disconnect’ period. That means you’ll still get gas and electricity for the next 24 hours without needing to top up.

This doesn’t mean you’re getting free gas and electricity; you’ll need to pay for this energy when you start topping up again.

If you haven’t topped up by the end of the 24-hour period, your energy will go off supply.

If you’re on Smart PAYG Standard and your IHD isn’t working for some reason – perhaps it’s lost the connection or the batteries have run out – you can also use your smart meter screen to activate your emergency credit.

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